Sodium battery

An innovative new method of drawing direct electrochemical energy from seawater means underwater robots, vehicles and detectors could go deeper and longer into the unknown.

While experimental sodium-ion batteries continue to show promise, there are a few kinks to be ironed out before we see them become commonplace. Researchers at Purdue University are claiming to have overcome one important shortcoming by first reducing the sodium to a powder form. ​

Striking a balance between common materials and efficiency is important for batteries, and regular old salt looks like it could fit the bill – after a few kinks are ironed out. Now, KAUST researchers have developed a way to make disordered graphene that can improve the sodium-ion battery recipe.

Cheaper than lithium, and constructed using very common materials, molten salt batteries could be back on the menu thanks to a new steel-based membrane between the electrodes. The discovery could pave the way for cheap, grid-level power storage that will allow cities to use more renewable energy.

As good as it is as an electrode material, lithium is relatively rare and expensive. In the search for a cheaper alternative, a Stanford team has developed a sodium-ion battery that would beat lithium-ion batteries in terms of cost per storage capacity.

​Stainless steel mesh is often used as filters and screens but once the material gets coated in rust and weakened, it's usually just discarded. Now Chinese scientists have figured out a way to take that metal trash and turn into high-performing treasure as electrodes in potassium ion batteries.

Researchers have used defective apples to produce a cheap and high-performance electrode for a sodium-ion battery, with applications including grid storage, portable electronics and electric cars.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have come up with a new battery design that not only relies on salt water to store and release electricity, but removes the salt ions from the water in the process.